Moving On

Keeping busy around here as usual, especially with all this nice weather that’s been coming our way:

• We ended up going to IKEA when D had his day off since it was a rainy day. Got two wooden toys for M and siblings for great prices. On the way back, we stopped by this lady’s house who had listed a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe, Police Car Edition on Craigslist. Can you imagine the torture M had to go through sitting next to this new, way-fun toy the entire ride home without being able to touch it? He did very well for himself, I was proud of him. He kept saying “Hi!” to it as it rolled his way and he held out his hands a few times, which is his way of showing that he wants to pick something up or he wants something to pick him up (like birds, cats, bees that he sees from a distance). Being the mean parents that we are, we put him right down for a nap as soon as we got home, but he was zonked so he didn’t even notice the little car as I pulled him out of his carseat.

• We visited with D’s parents the next afternoon and D was digging around in their attic to find a coffee/tea press that he remembered storing up there. He ended up not finding it, but we came home with a carful of items from the attic! Some of D’s belongings, a wooden table and chair set from D’s mom’s childhood, a wooden youth chair that M uses instead of the Bumbo seat at the table now, a lot of Golden Books from D’s childhood, and probably some more stuff I’m forgetting. Dad and D refinished the youth chair and it turned out beautifully. M is really enjoying his new seating arrangement and so am I because he can get up and down from it all by himself. We were looking at something similar at IKEA so my back and belly would be saved from hauling M’s 30 pound self up and down at each meal and snacktime, but we were glad we ended up not buying anything!

• Nick is enduring Week 3 of Boot Camp and doing very well from all accounts. Everyone has been writing him and he’s been finding time to write back to all of us, too. I try to write a letter to him every third day because there are only so many Micah stories one can tell, but he insists he likes getting the letters and hearing about life back at home. So I keep writing. I had to buy stamps at the post office the other day since I was running low from the last time I bought them….at least a year ago! We never use them.

• M came down with a stomach bug last Monday night and was up a few times throwing up. A whole mix of emotions came with that since he had never been sick like that before. D was a HUGE help since his crib had to stripped and M had to be stripped and I had to try not to get sick. I don’t do throw up; I hardly ever get that sick and I definitely don’t like experiencing it with other people. You can imagine how comforting of a Kindergarten teacher I was during these [thankfully very few and very far between] instances. So, like any good toddler, M shared his sickness with us and forty-eight hours later D and I got it. Couldn’t have been more perfect timing since M was in bed and slept great, but the next day was kind of rough. D called out of work and we were going to send M to Dad and Mom’s, but Mom ended up getting sick later the same night we did! So the two of us managed quite nicely to entertain a very busy, bouncy toddler throughout the day as we tried to recover and get rest. It’s a day for the books, that’s for sure, but in some sort of weirdly odd way it was a cozy day. Since M didn’t expend much energy during the morning hours, he didn’t take a long nap, but we slept while he slept and D felt a lot better after his nap. I was just tired in general from a bad night’s sleep and from being in my first trimester. By the next day, we were all better and back to normal (except for feeling bad that Dad and Kristina caught it, too!) I guess this bug was going around the school attached to our church, which, had I known about, would have never put M in the nursery aka germ factory.

• I’m technically in my second trimester now and feeling 90% better. I still have to eat like crazy or I’ll feel sick. I go for my second doctor’s appointment tomorrow. It’s been a month already since my last one! M is good for making time fly while having fun.

• BreaBrea is as cute as ever. I love her little face, it’s so defined. She’s smiling at people now, which makes her that much cuter. M is so good with her and absolutely adores her. He wants to help feed her the bottle, pat her, push her in the swing, kiss her, and today he got to hold her for the first time. Which, of course, became a photo shoot and they both performed very well. M is going to be such a great big brother, maybe a little too helpful… Maybe I should pray that I do have another nine-pound-plus baby so s/he can withstand M.

• I’m in the market for a new cloth diapering system. gDiapers are awesome, but I think I’m ready to make the jump into full cloth diapering. Not the kind my mom used, but the twenty-first century type. My plan is to buy three or four types to try them out and pick the one we like best and buy that system. The one I think I’m going to like (which means it probably won’t work…) looks exactly like a disposable diaper, except it’s made of this plush minkee fabric on the outside (aka super soft). It doesn’t have a lot of parts to it and it’s a one size fits all deal, so I don’t have to buy different sizes. I’m testing them out on M, but hopefully he’ll be potty trained by the time Baby is here and after size one disposables, I can use the new system on him/her. I’m definitely using the organic-type disposables in the beginning because I remember how much M went the bathroom in the beginning and I’m not about to do that much laundry. And I still use the organic diapers at night with M, so I guess I’m a semi-cloth diaperer. Anyway, I’m finding good deals on Huggies Pure and Natural diapers: a small pack of 26 diapers is only $6 which is a great deal. That’s with a $3 off coupon. And I managed to print out six of them this past week.

• M can say his name now and answers the question, “What is your name?” when asked. He’s a talking and mimicking machine. I’m working on a Day in the Life of Micah post, there’s so much to include, but I won’t make it a book. I’m writing things down here and there as we go. For general stuff, I write on his calendar that I’m continuing from the One Year Baby Calendar to however-many-years-I-keep-it-up. It’s quick and practical and I hang it on the fridge so it’s easy to write milestones, cute sayings, or something fun we did that day. And it’s easily extendable to a number of kids since it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort. That’s the theory anyway!

• And finally, one book down in my summer reading list: Son of Hamas. It’s about a top Hamas guy who informed on the organization for an Israeli spy agency and found Christ in the meantime. Talk about cross-cultures. His story was really amazing and truly inspiring; I read it in three days. There’s another book along the same lines (Muslim turned Christian) called Once an Arafat Man. Here’s the last part of the description: “This book is a fascinating window into the book of Genesis, Islamic culture and the Arab-Israeli conflict. More importantly, it is a story of the ultimate hope rooted in Christ, the Savior of all--including Jews and Muslims.” I put it on hold at our library, so hopefully it’ll be in soon.

• Sorry no pictures, we got this new 4 GB memory card and our card reader won’t read it. D told me another way but it’s nearing my bedtime.